WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

44
LI S.–WEI Y.- JIANG Q. - M. W. FELDMAN
and the culture takes a long time, and it is government’s responsibility
to address the economic and political issues involved. Some regions
have already introduced elderly support systems, centred on social
support, family support, or self-support, as well as multi-level rural
social support systems (Yang, 2005). At the same time, policies and
regulations have been developed to help women enjoy equal rights and
opportunities in resource sharing and work opportunities and to eliminate
gender discrimination. Noting that son preference has been exacerbated
by the family planning policy, the government is currently
considering the feasibility of less restrictive birth control policies
(Zhou, 2005). The government has also adopted a series of active
policies; some regions have set targets for reducing SRB, including
plans to evaluate county- and city-level population and family planning
staff, to step up control and management of ultrasound machines and
more stringent ratification procedures for terminating pregnancy.
These measures have led to a decline of SRB in the regions where they
were implemented (Huang and Zhou, 2005).
International experience and Chinese practices show that it is possible
to improve the survival environment of girl children and thus to
alleviate EFCM. It is feasible to produce a favourable environment for
female children, to continue social and economic development and to
establish an improved social security system. Nevertheless it will take a
long time for the culture to change to the degree that at the national
level the goal of gender equality for children and adults can be
achieved.
References
ATTANÉ Isabelle, 2004, “The growing imbalance between boys and girls in China:
Issues and prospects”, Chinese Cross Current, 4:37-64.
ATTANÉ Isabelle, 2005, “Gender discrimination at early stages of life in China:
Evidence from 1990 and 2000 population censuses”, in ATTANÉ I., VÉRON J.
(Eds), Gender Discriminations among Young Children in Asia, Pondicherry: French Institute
of Pondicherry, 169-186.
BANISTER Judith, 1994, “Implications and quality of China’s 1990 census data”, in
China State Council and National Bureau of Statistics (ed.), 1990 Population Census
of China: Proceedings of International Seminar. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
BANISTER Judith, 2004, “Shortage of girls in China today”, Journal of Population
Research, 21(1): 19-45.
BANISTER Judith, HILL Kenneth, 2004, “Mortality in China 1964-2000”, Population
Studies, 58(1): 55-75.
CAI Yong, LAVELY William, 2003, “China’s missing girls: Numerical estimates and
effects on population growth”, The China Review, 2(3): 13-29.